Bangladesh has made remarkable progress on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to health and nutrition, increasing child immunization rates while reducing the incidence of malnutrition and communicable diseases, as well as infant and maternal mortality rates.
... See More + Building on this success, Bangladesh is seeking to achieve universal health coverage by 2032. Realizing this ambitious goal won't be easy, however. To do so, the country must intensify ongoing efforts to tackle communicable diseases and maternal and child health issues. At the same time, Bangladesh must address in health challenges arising from an increase in noncommunicable diseases, and from climate change and urbanization.
See Less -

Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world, with more than 70 percent of the population living on less than 1.90 dollars a day. The Social Safety Net (SSN) project has three components: a conditional cash transfer, a productive safety net program, and an emergency cash transfer program in the drought.
... See More + In 2015, the World Bank started working with ideas, a leading research and policy think tank specializing in behavioral studies and founded by leading academics in the field of behavioral economics. The aim was to introduce behavioral interventions in the spiraling implementation of cash transfer programs. The SSN project in Madagascar was chosen to design and test nudges what would further enhance desired human development and productive inclusion outcomes.
See Less -

This note summarizes some of the key contributions in the macro- and micro- economic literature on the pathways linking human capital and income growth.
... See More + Rather than completeness, the objective of this work is to distill some of the most relevant threads in the evolution of these literatures using a human capital lens, with a view to provide a useful yet parsimonious conceptual framework and an update on empirical results. The note first describes the human capital model (section 1). It then outlines the main theoretical elements of growth theory and presents empirical results from the cross-country regressions and development accounting literature to gauge to what extent human capital affects growth at the aggregate level (sections 2, 3 and 4). The note then reviews the micro empirical literature estimating labor income returns of human capital investments (sections 5 and 6). The conclusion draws comparisons between the two empirical approaches and provides a brief critical assessment on how to interpret the empirical results. Investing in human capital is a promising strategy to attain stable and positive growth. The magnitude of the effects is country-specific and varies depending on the population of interest, the policy under consideration, and the human capital component considered.
See Less -

The development objective of Mainstreaming Sustainable Cattle Ranching Project is to promote the adoption of environment-friendly Silvopastoral Production Systems forcattle ranching in Colombia's Project areas, to improve natural resource management, enhance the provision of environmental services (biodiversity, land, carbon, and water), and raise the productivity in participating farms.
... See More + This restructuring requires the following changes: (i) changes in the Results Framework, more specifically on End-of-Project (EOP) targets for two Project Development Objective (PDO) indicators and four intermediate indicators, in alignment with the expanded outreach of the Project, and the strengthened emphasis on awareness creation/training and capacity building activities; (ii) a reallocation of proceeds among budget categories to reflect the expanded outreach of the Project, the strengthened emphasis on awareness creation/training and capacity building activities, and to cover operating costs during the extension phase; (iii) the reallocation among budget categories implies changes in Component costs, including a reduction of 1.59 million US dollars in the budget for Component 2 activities and its reallocation to support activities under Components 1, 3 and 4; and (iv) extension of the closing date of the project from January 31, 2018 to January 31, 2020 to complete the project activities.
See Less -

The development objective of the Agriculture Commercialization Project for Lao People's Democratic Republic is to increase commercialization of selected value chains in the project areas.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: (1) project affected people (PAP) are compensated and assisted to improve or maintain their pre-project incomes and living standards, and are not made worse off than they will have been without the project; (2) the compensation shall be in the form of land, material, or money for the land, agricultural products, livestock, and incomes that are affect by development projects based on compensation value; (3) provision of agriculture land in appropriate ways including the creation of new livelihood options and stable income generation activities and promotion of local crafts and industry in addition to agricultural production activities for the affected people; and (4) the project owner must set up a management unit of compensation and resettlement to take charge of monitoring and examination by himself other than other parties.
See Less -

The development objective of the Second West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program Project for Africa is to scale-up the generation, dissemination, and adoption of improved technologies in the participating countries’ priority agricultural commodity areas.
... See More + The restructuring will extend the closing date for the International Development Association (IDA) six (6) months from December 31, 2017 to June 30, 2018. This is necessary to allow a few remaining activities to be fully completed while also ensuring that the existing project team can facilitate the preparation of the West Africa Agricultural Transformation Project (WAATP) which is expected to be presented to the World Bank Board of Directors for approval by May 2018.
See Less -

This paper describes the health financing policies used today by African countries to expand health coverage. It identifies key health financing policies used by African countries and measures the existence of regional patterns in the use of these policies.
... See More + The paper does not attempt to identify best practices, nor does it try to measure the effective coverage of the policies or their impact. Rather, it aims to add value to the existing literature by providing a systematic portrayal of the health financing policies that are in place across the region. The study concludes with a discussion about the implications of its findings for planning next steps to advance universal health. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the conceptual framework and methodology used in the study. Section 3 describes the different paths chosen by African countries to expand health coverage. Sections 4 and 5 describe the two key instruments used in that journey: the universal basic package of health services and the subpopulation health coverage programs. Section 6 reviews in detail some of the technical instruments required for the successful implementation of these policies. Section 7 uses the findings of the paper to discuss the cost estimations of implementing a broader benefit package to advance universal health coverage. The paper concludes with a summary of the findings and their implications.
See Less -

The risk of the El Niño-induced food insecurity in southern Africa in 2016; the recent risk of famine in northern Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, and South Sudan; and the recent outbreak of the fall armyworm (FAW) in East and Southern Africa (ESA) all demonstrate that responses are still largely reactive than proactive.
... See More + Inadequate early warning systems (EWSs), coupled with limited investment and weak institutional and technical capacity, are implicated in contributing to food insecurity–related emergencies in ESA. Yet over the years, strong evidence has emerged on the benefits of investing in EWSs. In Ethiopia, investing in a drought EWS, which would reduce livelihood losses and dependence on assistance, has a benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of between 3:1 and 6:1. Similarly, the BCR of improving national hydro-meteorological services in developing countries ranges from 4:1 to 36:1. Consistent with one of the goals of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), increasing investment in EWSs would contribute to a substantial increase in the availability of, and access to multi hazard and disaster risk information, one of the key inputs in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
See Less -

Urbanization is occurring at a rapid pace in Bangladesh, accompanied by the proliferation of slum settlements, whose residents have special health needs given the adverse social, economic, and public environmental conditions they face.
... See More + Over the past 45 years, the country’s health and nutrition policies and programs have focused largely on rural health services. Consequently, equitable access of urban populations—particularly the urban poor—to quality health and nutrition services has emerged as a major development issue. However, the knowledge base on urban health and nutrition in Bangladesh remains weak. To address the knowledge gap, Health and Nutrition in Urban Bangladesh: Social Determinants and Health Sector Governance examines the health and nutrition challenges in urban Bangladesh—looking at socioeconomic determinants in general and at health sector governance in particular. Using a mixed methods approach, the study identifies critical areas such as financing, regulation, service delivery, and public environmental health, among others that require policy attention. The study also proposes specific actions within and outside the health sector to address the issues, providing guidance on their sequencing and the specific responsibilities of government agencies and other actors. This study should be useful to policy makers and practitioners working on urban health and nutrition issues in Bangladesh and in other low- and middle-income countries.
See Less -

The development objective of the Multisectoral Nutrition and Child Development Project for Cote d'ivoire is to increase the coverage of early childhood nutrition and development interventions in selected areas in the Recipient’s territory.
... See More + The Government with the implementation of the PNMN and selected ECD development interventions, this Project will have three components that together will address key challenges impeding the effectiveness of national efforts to enhance child nutrition and development outcomes. First component, early child nutrition and development interventions will support the scaling up of selected interventions to improve child growth, nutrition and development. This component will consist of three sub‐components: 1) Community‐based nutrition and stimulation; 2) Nutrition service delivery; and 3) Results‐based financing for public health nutrition (community‐based and/or demand‐side). This component will target the northern regions where malnutrition is concentrated, starting with the North and North East, followed by the North West, Center and Center West. Second component, Nutrition governance and management will provide financing to cover costs of strengthening the capacity of the immediate stakeholders that are part of the multisectoral technical and operational coordination platforms for investments and operations on early child growth, nutrition and development at the national, regional and sub‐regional levels. Third component, Project management will finance the costs associated with the day‐to‐day project management including the costs of running the Project Implementation Unit (PIU), the Project Steering Committee and Technical Planning Committee.
See Less -

This study analyzed the impact of a community-based preschool program on child development and schooling outcomes in high-poverty areas of rural Mozambique.
... See More + Preschools were randomly assigned to 30 of 76 eligible communities. Using a panel survey of 2,000 households with preschool aged children, the study found that children who attended preschool experienced gains in cognitive development, communication, fine motor skills, and socio-emotional skills, scoring 0.33 standard deviations higher on a child development screening test. Preschoolers were 21 percentage points more likely to be enrolled in primary school, 14.9 percentage points more likely to enroll at the appropriate age, and had higher cognitive and communication scores in first grade. Treatment effects were generally larger for children from vulnerable households, those with higher initial development levels, and those with longer exposure to treatment. The preschool intervention also generated positive spillovers by increasing the school enrollment of older siblings and labor supply of adult caregivers. At a cost of approximately $3 per child per month, community-led preschools have the potential to be a cost-effective policy option for helping children meet their development potential even in the most resource deprived parts of the world.
See Less -

The objective of the Second Ethiopia Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Project for Ethiopia is to increase access to enhanced water supply and sanitation services in an operationally efficient manner in Addis Ababa and selected Secondary Cities.
... See More + The first Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Project (UWSSP) was approved on April 24, 2007 as an investment project with a total financing of SDR 67.2 million from an IDA grant and Credit. With a slight change to the objective of the original project, the World Bank approved an Additional Financing (AF) of SDR 96.90 million on May 31, 2012. The revised closing date for the UWSSP is December 31, 2017 and all project activities have been completed, except for the completion, testing and commissioning of the Addis Ababa Kality sewerage system expansion and the Dire Dawa water supply system expansion sub-projects. Specifically, the remaining activities for Addis Ababa Kality subproject consist of extension of Kality trunk sewer line for the remainder of about 4 Kms, provision of sewer connections to households, and completion of Kality wastewater treatment plant (5 percent) including commissioning, testing and handing over the plant to the client. The remaining activities for the Dire Dawa subproject consist of completion of electromechanical equipment and pipes supply and installation works; extension of the primary and secondary distribution network into unserved areas, and provision of tertiary distribution, and residential connections. At project closing, the UWSSP will be 10.8 years old. Recognizing the implications of further extending the project closing date on the overall country portfolio performance, the Government of Ethiopia (GOE)officially requested to close the project without further extension and to transfer the incomplete activities from the two sub-projects to the UWSSP-II. The project objective and activities under the UWSSP-II are like the UWSSP. In addition, both Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa cities are among the 23 beneficiary cities covered by the UWSSP-II.
See Less -

The development objective of the Agriculture Competitiveness Enhancement Project for Samoa is to support fruit and vegetable growers and livestock producers to improve their productivity and take greater advantage of market opportunities.
... See More + This Restructuring Paper seeks the approval of the Country Director to extend the Samoa Agriculture Competitiveness Enhancement Project (SACEP) closing date by 9 months, from March 31, 2018 to December 31, 2018 and process a reallocation of proceeds among expenditure categories. There will be no other change, in the Project Development Objective (PDO), project components and implementation arrangements. This will be the second extension of the project’s closing date, for a total of 21 months.
See Less -

The objective of the Modern Food Storage Facilities Project for Bangladesh is to increase the grain reserve available to households to meet their post-disaster needs and improve the efficiency of grain storage management.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: separate waste bins are to be provided for kitchen waste and fish/meat waste and the bins should be sufficient in number; the vegetable wastes are to be collected and dumped in a early made earthen trench and after composting, that fertilizer may be used for the planted trees; the fish/meat wastes are to be collected and buried in the earthen hole and the soil cover should be at least one foot (30 cm) over that waste; as a whole, the wastes, those are the causes of nuisance around, should be buried in the earthen hole; The contractor will install sanitary latrines (may be low-cost latrines) with two-pit septic tank facilities; the latrines should be at a distant and safe location, preferably near the north-west boundary wall side; raised platform (brick soling with neat cement finishing) shall be constructed prior to start working; and the place should be well protected and to be prepared prior to start working. The place should be in a safe corner of the silo campus.
See Less -

The objective of the Modern Food Storage Facilities Project for Bangladesh is to increase the grain reserve available to households to meet their post-disaster needs and improve the efficiency of grain storage management.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: separate waste bins are to be provided for kitchen waste and fish/meat waste and the bins should be sufficient in number; the vegetable wastes are to be collected and dumped in a early made earthen trench and after composting, that fertilizer may be used for the planted trees; the fish/meat wastes are to be collected and buried in the earthen hole and the soil cover should be at least one foot (30 cm) over that waste; as a whole, the wastes, those are the causes of nuisance around, should be buried in the earthen hole; The contractor will install sanitary latrines (may be low-cost latrines) with two-pit septic tank facilities; the latrines should be at a distant and safe location, preferably near the north-west boundary wall side; raised platform (brick soling with neat cement finishing) shall be constructed prior to start working; and the place should be well protected and to be prepared prior to start working. The place should be in a safe corner of the silo campus.
See Less -